January 11, 2012

By

STEVEN NALLEY

At a meeting of the Starkville Convention and Visitors Bureau board Tuesday, Jennifer Gregory, vice president for tourism development with the Greater Starkville Development Partnership, announced the money visitors spend on tourism in Oktibbeha County annually has increased nearly 25 percent over the last two years.

From 2009-2010, Gregory said, the Mississippi Development Authorityâs tourism division reported an increase of nearly 10 percent, reaching about $65.2 million. She said such reports primarily account for money tourists spend on gas, food and hotels.

In 2011, Gregory said, tourism revenue reached about $74.9 million, an increase of about 14.8 percent. When the two consecutive increases are added together, she said, they approach a 25 percent increase over two years. She said this is a testament to the success of all the CVBâs tourism partners, including Mississippi State University athletics, the Mississippi Horse Park, the Starkville Area Arts Council and others.

January 11, 2012

By

ANGIE CARNATHAN

Starkvilleâs Friends of the Library will present its ongoing series, Books and Authors, at noon today at the Starkville Public Library. The program is free and open to the public.

This month features Suzanne Marrsâ âWhat There Is to Say We Have Said: The Correspondence of Eudora Welty and William Maxwell,â chronicling the friendship between Pulitzer Prize-winning author Welty and Maxwell, her editor at âThe New Yorkerâ magazine through 50 years of correspondence.

Welty herself wrote, âAll letters, old and new, are the still-existing parts of a life.â

Reading the letters between these two friends and remarkable fiction writers brings Welty and Maxwell to life for readers.

January 11, 2012

January 10th

January 11, 2012

Starkville Community Theatre will perform its production of âCabin 12â Thursday at McComas Hall on the campus of Mississippi State University. The play begins at 7:30 p.m., and admission is $10 for adults and $5 for students. SCT members said this play contains language and situations some may find offensive and is not appropriate for children.

âCabin 12,â a one-act play written by John Bishop, is SCTâs submission to this weekendâs Mississippi Theatre Association Festival in Gulfport. The play is directed by Kris Lee and features cast members Paul Ruff, Ben Lang, Rick Jordan and Jessica Taylor.

Matt Crane, MTA public relations director for Starkville, said the competition challenges the community theatreâs ability to put on a one-act show within the confines an hour.

January 11, 2012

A suspect allegedly involved in a Monday shooting death at 1816 Stowood Road has been charged with murder, Oktibbeha County Deputy Sheriff Chadd Garnett said.

Bail for Kewon Delarryous Doss, 19, of 1816 Stowood Road, will be set today. The time he will appear before the Oktibbeha County Justice Court is unknown. Doss is charged with killing 38-year old Larry Davis, his uncle, with what authorities say is a medium caliber handgun.

The pursuit for Doss, which Garnett said lasted approximately five hours, ultimately took officers to a pasture in the Rock Hill Road area in eastern Oktibbeha County. When the main officers returned to the sheriffâs office to determine a new plan for finding him, Doss, with assistance from family members, turned himself in at approximately 9:45 p.m.

January 11, 2012

The Starkville School District should have a list of semi-finalists â possibly even finalists â for the superintendent position sometime next week, school board President Keith Coble said Tuesday.

The school board narrowed down the list of 22 candidates during an executive session Tuesday night, though Coble could not confirm an exact number. The board president will submit the names to the Mississippi School Board Association today.

MSBA will handle contacting the candidates to confirm their spot as a semifinalist and perform the background checks. Once the candidates are confirmed and their background checks are cleared, the board will release a final number and a list of names to the public. Depending on the number, those candidates may be confirmed as finalists.

January 11, 2012

Officials with West Pointâs Navistar Defense, LLC announced the company received an $880 million order to upgrade Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles for the U.S. Marine Corps Tuesday.

An Associated Press report on the contract said the work force of about 100 at the Navistar plant will begin upgrading 2,717 MaxxPro MRAP vehicles in January and finish in October 2013. The report also says the upgrade entails removing the body from each vehicle and installing a new rolling chassis system, which will improve off-road performance.

West Point Chief Administrative Officer Randy Jones said the order was wonderful news for the city.

âAny time you get a contract that large, itâs good news,â Jones said.
This order shows why Navistar is crucial to West Pointâs economic well-being, Jones said. The city benefits from both the sales tax employees generate and the taxes Navistar pays on personal property and inventory, he said.